Wind, Weather & Other Natural Forces

What is it about the weather? Extreme or mundane, it always gives us something to talk about! [There’s even a television commercial about our weather addiction.] So of course we had to create a book list featuring Mother Nature in all her glory.

True stories of survival in extreme conditions
Weather allegory and poetry.
People whose lives and careers were inspired by nature.
Seasonal celebrations.

The list tilts toward nonfiction with material shared in a variety of formats and genre: poetry, novel in verse, graphic novel, picture books, and nonfiction that reads like a novel.

A book included in this list doesn’t imply anything about its eligibility for a CYBILS Award, nor is it an endorsement.

This post contains buy links which earn the CYBILS Awards advertising fees through Bookshop.org and Amazon Associates.

Book covers link to Goodreads. Blurbs extracted from Goodreads.

Climbing the Volcano: A Journey in Haiku

Climbing the Volcano is a call to adventure in the natural world, and a wonderful introduction to poetic forms. Young readers will be inspired to summit their own peaks and to find their own voices to share what they discover there. Whether you live in the shadow of a volcano, amid sprawling flatlands, or anywhere in between,
Poetry Collections nominee, 2024

Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires

Goats and beavers. Drones and parachutes. Pinecones and beetles. What do they have in common? Believe it or not, they are all crucial tools in fighting, preventing, and adapting to wildfires! A riveting, kid friendly text is accompanied by stunning woodcut illustrations and full-color photographs, as well as extensive back matter with glossary, sources, and index.
Middle-Grade Nonfiction nominee, 2024

Fire Flight: A Wildfire Escape

Flames consume a forest, and an owl seeks refuge. Helicopter wings chop, and water drops to drench the branches below. Using spare, lyrical language, this debut picture book takes readers inside the journey of a screech owl that fled the flames to ride along with a firefighting helicopter during the 2020 California Creek wildfire.
Elementary Nonfiction nominee, 2024

Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson

Rachel was a girl who loved science and the sea books and writing and all the creatures of the world. Rachel was quiet, a listener by nature. But when she saw problems, she could not remain silent. Some people thought girls shouldn’t be scientists or writers. They thought girls shouldn’t use their voices to question or challenge even to protect all the creatures of the world. Luckily Rachel didn’t listen to them.
Poetry Novel In Verse nominee, 2024

How Do Meteorologists Predict the Future?: A Science Book About Meteorology

Have you ever wondered how meteorologists on TV predict the weather? A basic explanation of weather instruments, forecasting, and so much more is explored through diagrams, illustrations, and informative and engaging text in this new addition to the How Do series. Includes fun weather activities and a glossary!
Elementary Nonfiction submission, 2024

I Am a Thundercloud

Big feelings are hard to manage, especially when you’re a small person trying to understand yourself and the world. For those confusing stormy days, I Am a Thundercloud helps readers relate to their feelings through the sounds, sensations and colors of nature, making them feel comfortable and lighter.
Fiction Picture Book nominee, 2024

Little Seasons: Spring Seeds

Discover how seeds spring into action! As winter warms into spring, the amazing life cycle begins―seeds root and sprout and start to grow. From tiny carrot seeds to big avocado seeds and everything in between, discover what seeds can do in this pitch-perfect picture book for younger readers.
Elementary Nonfiction submission, 2024

Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival

In 1944, Ilse Schweder (13) got lost in a snowstorm while checking her family's trapline in northern Canada. This is the harrowing story of how a young Indigenous girl defies the odds and endures nine days alone in the unforgiving barrens. Ilse faces many challenges, including freezing temperatures, wild animals, snow blindness and frostbite. With no food or supplies, she relies on Traditional Indigenous Knowledge passed down from her family. Ilse uses her connection to the land and animals, wilderness skills and resilience to find her way home.
Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novel submission, 2024

Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens

For weeks, the ground around Mount St. Helens shuddered like a dynamite keg ready to explode. There were legends of previou eruptions: violent fire, treacherous floods, and heat that had scoured the area. But the shaking and swelling was unlike any volcano ever seen before. The long-dormant volcano seethed away, boiling rock far below the surface. Washington’s governor, Dixie Lee Ray, understood the despair that would follow from people being forced from their homes. How and when should she give orders to evacuate the area? And would that be enough to save the people from the eruption of Mount St. Helens?
Middle-Grade Nonfiction nominee, 2024

The Mud Angels: How Students Saved the City of Florence

When the Arno River floods the city of Florence, Italy in 1966, it leaves slimy, smelly mud everywhere. A young girl watches students from around the world, many from the US, help save the town's rare treasures, earning themselves the nickname Gli Angeli del Fango, the Mud Angels.
Fiction Picture Book nominee, 2024

Nature’s Architects (Little Nature Explorers)

Birds build nests. Beavers build lodges. Animals' homes are all different, but they're all built to protect young. Amber Hendricks's short, expressive text lines with repeated action words, together with Gavin Scott's cozy illustrations, make this poem perfect for sharing with babies and toddlers and encouraging all ages to appreciate nature.
Board Book submission, 2024

A Roof!

Typhoons are a regular part of Maya’s life in the Philippines, but after this storm, she finds something unusual in her backyard—a roof! There’s an address written on it, and Maya is determined to return it to its family. She’ll need help to make her way through the damage left behind by the typhoon. As she sets out with her tatay, Maya collaborates with a farmer and his carabao, a couple of fishers and their boat, a sapatero, a labandera, a kusinera, and more of her neighbors.
Fiction Picture Book nominee, 2024

Starlight Symphony

Nature is full of music. Listen in as a wood thrush, a cricket, a woodpecker, and many other animals perform a symphony under the stars. Rhyming verse and eye-catching photos will draw in animal lovers and music lovers alike!
Elementary Nonfiction nominee, 2024

Summer Is Here

Summer is finally here, and she's bringing the most perfect day! From sunup to sundown, there's so much to do on this lovely summer day. With summer comes fresh fruit, sweet and tangy, jump ropes for leaping and dancing, and friends at the pool swimming and floating. Summer brings family cookouts under shady trees, gardens overflowing, and the familiar song of the ice-cream truck. This beautiful ode to all the season's sensations follows one girl's perfect day in an exploration of joy, family, friendship, sunshine, and wonder.
Fiction Picture Book nominee, 2024

Summer: A Solstice Story (The Solstice Series)

The long summer days are here, and in the peace and stillness of the morning, the forest seems quiet and asleep. But there is always life everywhere if you know where—and when—to look. Solstice is here! On the longest day of the year, friends Squirrel, Raccoon, Bear, Sparrow, Rabbit, Woodpecker, and Deer gather to share the gifts of new light and life that summer brings.
Fiction Picture Book submission, 2024

The Wheel of the Year: An Illustrated Guide to Nature’s Rhythms

Blending nature connection with art, poetry, and myth, The Wheel of the Year conveys the magic and beauty of ancient traditions and encourages young readers to notice, care for, and celebrate the natural world around them. ach “spoke” in The Wheel of the Year marks an important turning point: the winter and summer solstices, the spring and fall equinoxes, and the festivals of seeding, growing, and harvesting that arrive in between.
Middle-Grade Nonfiction nominee, 2024

Wild at Heart: The Story of Olaus and Mardy Murie, Defenders of Nature

Mardy and Olaus Murie fell in love in--and with--Alaska. Then set out on an adventure across the Arctic for Olaus's work as a biologist, encountering the beauty and danger of the wilds along the way. They learned from Indigenous communities to appreciate the interconnectedness of all living creatures and understood that the way humans were moving in on wild land was threatening the natural world. So they shifted the focus of their work to conservation, fighting to protect the land and animals.
Elementary Nonfiction submission, 2024

Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough

As a boy, David loved exploring the wild places near his home in England, collecting fossils, rocks, and newts. When he grew older, he got a job in television, where he had an idea for a new kind of He would travel to wild places all over the world to film animals in their natural habitats. Over the span of seven decades, David's innovative documentaries have been treasured by millions of people. But as time went on, he noticed the wild places he loved were shrinking. What could David do to help? What could we all do?
Elementary Nonfiction nominee, 2024

Windsongs: Poems about Weather

Weather describes our atmosphere. Like whether it’s cloudy, or whether it’s clear. Whether it’s freezing, or frosty, or cool. Learn about all sorts of weather all over the world, from a regular rainy day to a hurricane, from fog to frost, from droughts to dewy mornings. With clever poems perfect for reading aloud and fact-filled backmatter, young readers can explore both everyday and once-in-a-lifetime natural phenomena.
Poetry Collections nominee, 2024

Winter Solstice Wish

On the shortest day of the year, when daylight slips by like sand through one's fingers, people savor the light. As night falls, a community collects driftwood to build a bonfire of hope. Winter Solstice Wish is an ode to the winter solstice, human connectedness, and the hope of renewal. Winter Solstice Wish combines scientific concepts with the intangible longing for connection and togetherness that people all over the world reach for on the shortest day. Backmatter includes information about global winter solstice celebrations and a brief scientific explanation of what's happening on a solstice.
Fiction Picture Book nominee, 2024

Wintergarden

With a little bit of love and care, a few seeds nestled in pots, and a good windowsill, there’s no better time to make an herb garden with mom than in the dead of winter. Together, a young girl and her mother can grow everything you find in a spring herb garden, from oregano to parsley and baby greens, carefully tending their plants to watch them thrive, all while frigid snow falls just outside the window. The multiple harvests of fresh greens are just what they need to stay warm through the coldest and darkest season.
Fiction Picture Book submission, 2024

Wind, Weather & Other Natural Forces | #CYBILS2024 Book List

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